Not a Drill!

Release Build 16.08 v1.1

Not a Drill! is a puzzle game based around minigames and customization. You are in control of a mining spaceship with basic equipment installed. Prospect asteroid fields, salvage valuable resources and keep on upgrading your ship's structure and outfit.

Controls

Asteroids

Press Z to scan the asteroid

If it has resources inside, press Z again to start mining it

Depending on the resource type, different minigames will start:

Metal asteroid: aim the laser beam to cut through the colored weak spots. For every layer cut the beam will accelerate and charge up, leaving longer trails. Avoid cutting the trail (thus critically damaging the asteroid) and leaving the mining area

Mineral asteroid: break mineral crystals to protect the main drill from getting stuck. Mining speeds up with time, so do your best before it stops

Core asteroid: all you need is a single well-timed button click. Wait until the manipulator ray is on the core and press Z to grab it. You have limited tries, precision is the key!

Salvaged resources require cargo space in your ship to be acquired. As soon as your cargo hold is full (CARGO FULL message), leave the sector by warping out.

Locations

Asteroid Belt - average reserves, sometimes a beautiful close-up star in the background.Stone Ring - average reserves on a planetary orbit.

Metal-rich Ring - much more metal and much less mineral asteroids.

Icy Ring - tremendously more ice asteroids but less metal ones.

Building

Color selection: click a slider and use arrow keys to change the selected color component.Block type selection: click and press up and down arrow keys to choose the block you need, notice that all blocks of the same type installed on your ship will be highlighted.Ship editing window: move the cursor with arrow keys and press Z to place a block.Current balance: your current credit balance.Energy available: current ship's energy balance, will turn red if negative.Edit cost: the amount of credits the changes you've made cost, will turn red if exceeds your current credit balance or green if you will gain money for these changes.Error message: shows one of the possible messages:

NOERR - no errors, your ship will only save upon exiting the building menu if you have this message

0 ARM - no armor blocks installed

0 CRG - no cargo hold blocks installed

0 THR - no thrusters installed

INSEN - insufficient energy, add more energy generators

INSCR - insufficient credits, you can't afford the upgrades

BRKEN - your ship has torn apart parts, validate its integrity

Blocks

Armor: increases the ship's durability, making it less vulnerable to the collisions

Cargo Hold: increases the cargo hold capacity, +25 per block

Thruster: increases the ship's mobility, placing the blocks near the pivot has more impact on the rotation speed, placing the blocks further - better increases the flying speed

Energy Generator: generates power for the ship, +7 per block (generates 8 and drains, as every other block, 1 unit of energy), energy is also used by the mining equipment

Customisation

Lasers: mining lasers you use for mining metal asteroids (purple scan).Drills: mining drills for mining mineral asteroids (yellow scan).Manipulators: manipulators are used for extracting valuable asteroid cores from the green-highlighted asteroids. By default you don't have one, though you can still encounter asteroids they are used for.Item image and tier: pretty self-explanatory. Higher tier equipment allows for better mining experience:

upgrading the laser slows down the laser trail grow

upgrading the drill accelerates the crystal-breaking drill

upgrading the manipulator gives an extra try per tier, total of 4 at tier III

Energy consumption and item price: energy and credit cost of the selected item, will turn red if energy/credits are insufficient. Notice that you current item may have its own energy and credit price already, so, for example, upgrading the laser from tier I to tier II will cost 30-10=20 energy and 200-50=150 credits.Available energy and credit balance: identical to those you have in the building menu.